USUPhilosophy

Here’s a brilliant (and short) TED talk about confronting philosophy’s questions under the harsh lights of lived experience:

(h/t to USU philosophy alumna Heather Albee Scott!)

Students, please be aware of the Brett Blanch Scholarship! It is available to philosophy majors at least one semester away from graduation, with at least a 3.5 gpa in philosophy classes. More details in this pdf:

Brett Blanch Scholarship Announcement Fall 2016 Spring 2017

(If you’re not sure whether you qualify, just ask a philosophy prof!)

From UC – San Diego:

“We are excited to announce that we are now accepting applications for our 2016 Summer Program for Women in Philosophy. We would appreciate your distributing the attached flyer and encouraging any undergraduate women you know who may be interested to apply.

Come join profs Holberg, Huenemann, and Kleiner in discussing philosophical aspects of the Lucasverse: next Thursday, February 4th, 3 p.m., Main 304.

Here is a very interesting and insightful article about the efforts of physicists to see math in nature, and how that sometimes might result in paradoxes and dead ends. An excerpt:

That said, we should be wary of claims about ultimate truth. While quantification, as a project, is far from complete, it is an open question as to what it might ultimately embrace. Let us look again at the colour red. Red is not just an electromagnetic phenomenon, it is also a perceptual and contextual phenomenon. Stare for a minute at a green square then look away: you will see an afterimage of a red square. No red light has been presented to your eyes, yet your brain will perceive a vivid red shape. As Goethe argued in the late-18th century, and Edwin Land (who invented Polaroid film in 1932) echoed, colour cannot be reduced to purely prismatic effects. It exists as much in our minds as in the external world. To put this into a personal context, no understanding of the electromagnetic spectrum will help me to understand why certain shades of yellow make me nauseous, while electric orange fills me with joy.

Rest of the article here.